


Onto the Grid

by himynameisnova



Category: idk - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future, Developing Relationship, Dysfunctional Family, Dystopia, Multi, Time Travel, Universe Alteration
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-15
Updated: 2014-06-15
Packaged: 2018-02-04 19:26:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 3,879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1790473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/himynameisnova/pseuds/himynameisnova
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Girl from thousands of years into a dystopian future finds herself in present day and has to salvage the world before it runs itself into the ground. Is thrown into a dysfunctional family of the past and meets a possible love interest.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Once upon a time, I awoke. In a stranger place.

There was space for thinking, but it felt more like space to scream to. Looking out the window, I could see light but no sun. The pavement looked wet, something I knew would have been unheard of where I'd been last. 

A lone dot of red sat nestled amongst a sea of green. 

The water fell from above again, and I felt panic rise from within me. I'd heard of it a few times from people who called it rain. Maybe that was why this place was so lush and alive, with green anywhere you could think to look.

The water thundered down even harder now, as if it was demanding to be noticed. It seemed like too much, all at once. It began flowing down a dark grey strip of land beyond the green, scrubbing away any trace of stillness. 

It became impossible not to watch. How much water was in the sky, anyway? How had it gotten there? I could hear it pounding against the structure that enclosed me.

The pouring began to let up, the climax behind it now. If this was how it had always been before, why did everyone yearn for it? Because water meant life, they told me. But I'm alive, I'd say back. There is a difference between living and simply existing, they said. 

I'm sure it's a fine line. They would shake their heads, deciding it was useless to try and explain. Then they'd go back to whatever they had been doing. I'd be left wondering about this utopian, plentiful land of the past and what had happened to it.

Now, it seemed that I was there. Looking down, I saw that I was clothed in some awful, brightly colored tunic thing. A pile of papers attached to each other lay open in front of me. I found that I could flip the papers to read the writing on each side. One page, thicker than the rest, read '250 pages, 1 subject notebook'. Underneath it had writing that looked to be in another language, 'cahier 1 sujet'. I hadn't been trained in foreign relations, so I didn't have the faintest clue what it meant. 

Suddenly, a horrible, angry noise tore through the sky outside and the rain hammered to the ground even harder than before. Passing it off as yet another mystery of the past, I returned to the notebook. A book of notes. Books, I knew, were read for enjoyment and education. Notes were taken during studies. This was someone's book of notes.

Below the foreign writing, there was another sentence that I identified as an website address from the three w's in front of it. 'www.hilroy.ca', it said. 

Why was I here? Was this all one of those night visions? I knew very few people got them, and that I was lucky to be one. They were said to be an escape from reality. But this was certainly realistic.

I decided to explore. Getting off the large, soft, rectangular platform I'd found myself on, I took a look around the room I woke up in. 

There were little images tacked to the walls, all featuring a girl with dark hair, making faces that stared out of the picture at me. These were pictures, taken with an actual camera, I realized. Nobody had taken pictures of humans for ages. How far back in time had I gone?


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Girl from thousands of years into a dystopian future finds herself in present day and has to salvage the world before it runs itself into the ground. Is thrown into a dysfunctional family of the past and meets a possible love interest.

Most of the pictures featured the dark haired girl. Sometimes she was surrounded by other people. Sometimes she was by herself, smiling at the camera (camera!) as whoever had been behind the lense snapped the picture. In the ones where she looked the oldest, her hair was long and loosely curly, a stark change from her younger self's almost black ringlets. 

I knew my hair was dark, it was just long enough that it fell in front of my eyes when I leaned forward. I also knew that I had navy blue eyes, like everyone else in my unit. We were connected to each other by birth, our traits passed down through every generation. If I ever had offspring of my own, they'd have the same lopsided mess of dark hair and blue eyes as me. 

But that was all I knew about my appearance. There were no cameras, not that taking pictures of ourselves was allowed, and anything that reflected an image of decent clarity had been destroyed. 

Here, there was a gigantic, shiny surface on the wall that reflected everything in its path perfectly. When I stood in front of it, I saw the girl in the pictures. I saw the same smile that was wider on the left, the same single upturned eyebrow. My hair was a mess, but hey, I'd been asleep. Or something like that. 

At first I was scared. Then fascinated. I mean, I was sort of not ugly. Was this the vanity our protectors warned us about? Then I was scared again. Was I her from the future? Was she me from the past? Who was she? Who were we? I had been placed in her life. Was she in mine? Had the disaster not happened? All I wanted was to shut my eyes that were the same as hers and go back to wherever I'd came from. But at the same time, I wanted to stay.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Girl from thousands of years into a dystopian future finds herself in present day and has to salvage the world before it runs itself into the ground. Is thrown into a dysfunctional family of the past and meets a possible love interest.

I was broken out of my trance, I guess you could call it, by the sound of something thumping around beyond my room. Footsteps. Footsteps of a stranger, who'd expect me to know who they were. Footsteps coming from feet attached to a person banging on the door.

I wasn't shy, nor had I ever been, because theoretically I couldn't. If I'd been shy, they said I wouldn't have lived. Lucky me. But right now, I was freaking out. What was I supposed to to? Pretend to be asleep? Open the door? Hide?

I didn't have to make the choice, because the door was already half-open. The footsteps had belonged to a woman older than anyone I'd ever seen. There were strikes of grey in her shock-black hair, and pieces of glass attached to metal hooks over her eyes. She didn't look unfriendly, but I couldn't tell anymore.

"Heather, it's 10," she says. Ten what, I wondered. "Get out of bed, you're wasting daylight."

So I was Heather... interesting because I can't remember if I'd had a name back home or if they'd referred to me as 'Unit 6, daughter'. And the giant soft thing was called a bed. I don't know if we'd had luxuries like that, either.

"Um, yeah." I didn't know what else to stammer out, but I guess the woman didn't care. She gave me a look and went thundering away.

Then I heard voices below. Stairs. That's what those were. I doubt that we had sophisticated enough infrastructure to need stairs. I'd heard of them, though. They will like hills with notches cut out for your feet.

"I'm telling you, she's hiding something, Phil." It was the woman's voice again.

"Calm it, Marciana. I'm sure it's just been rough on her, losing her brother and all, and that's a valid enough excuse to act up." The other voice was distinctly male. But I'd, wait, she'd lost her brother? Where? Why wasn't he in any of Heather's pictures? Her walls were plastered with them, surely she might have some of him somewhere.

"Don't you dare bring up Lukas! You know I had nothing to do with that, it's not on me!" Marciana, or whoever she was, began shouting frantically. Clearly Phil had unknowingly hit a nerve.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Girl from thousands of years into a dystopian future finds herself in present day and has to salvage the world before it runs itself into the ground. Is thrown into a dysfunctional family of the past and meets a possible love interest.

I leaned over the railing at the top of the stairs, straining my ears to hear the whispered argument that followed. I caught a few snatches of it, like the words 'Lukas', 'vanished, without a trace!', and 'yeah, right'. 

Then there was a bunch of mumbling I couldn't make out, concluding with Marciana bursting into a sob and Phil's attempts at 'tut-tut'ing her back to a stable frame of mind.

I decided that I really didn't want to go downstairs, but I didn't know what Marciana would do if she had to come up here again. I didn't want to upset her even more by being late to whatever I was already late for.

Trying to make my way downstairs quiet and unnoticed, I descended on my toes only. Never having used stairs before, I suppose I should've known that I wouldn't be coordinated enough to pull this off.

In short, I sort of stumble-tripped over one of my feet. This flung my shoulder into the wooden planks and sent me tumbling head first to the foot of the stairs. So much for trying not to make a distraction.

"What was that?"

"Eh?"

"Heather!"

"What about her?"

"She fell, idiot! Did you not hear that?"

"Sorry for my mind being elsewhere, honey."

"I don't care where in hell your mind is, you need to shut up and go check on Heather, your daughter, who is alive and well, unlike somebody else you decided to bring up this morning."

God, no wonder it seemed like Lukas had left. His parents were at it non-stop! I was here laying nearly dead on the floor, while they argued about who should check on me.

I stared up at the top of the room, more because my neck wouldn't turn than anything else. For such a messed up family, they had really pretty lights in their home.

And that's the last thing that went through my head before everything went dark.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Girl from thousands of years into a dystopian future finds herself in present day and has to salvage the world before it runs itself into the ground. Is thrown into a dysfunctional family of the past and meets a possible love interest.

Where had the world gone? I seem to have been transported into nothing. There was space to scream to, but when I opened my mouth, no sound left my lips. 

I didn't know if I was sitting or standing. I didn't know where up and down were. I couldn't tell were right ended and left began. 

My surroundings materialized slowly, the darkness fading away to light, and color. I was on a snaking vehicle about to go of the edge of a cliff. A yellow sign bearing the words 'CAUTION: DEAD END' loomed not far ahead. Was this how it all would end? Would I see Lukas when I died? 

Right about when I should have been dropped over the edge, I was climbing up a rock face, a rope harness secured around me. I heard a very quiet, subtle tearing noise and looked as far up as I could. 

As soon as I saw the problem, the rope had already torn in two, and I was falling once again. This time I wasn't taken anywhere else. 

I was lying in darkness again, only this time I was fully aware of my senses. I heard Marciana still whisper-fighting Phil as she hovered above what might've been my corpse. 

"I told you something was up with her,"

"Shhh, she looks like she's comin' round again..."

"Got her outta bed this morning, and she met my eyes with a gaze as blank as my test papers in college." Marciana didn't 'shhh'. "I swear, she had no idea where she was or who I was. It's almost as if she'd gone brain-dead for a second there."

Great acting skills, you totally had them fooled that it was their daughter. I wanted to smack myself in the head, but that would require moving my arms, something I wasn't quite capable of at the moment.

"Heather, baby, are you with us?" Phil sounded worried and exhausted, which was reasonable as he had lost one kid, and now who he thought was the other was lying spread-eagled and motionless at the bottom of his stairs.

Even fluttering my eyelids was too big a goal to accomplish. But I couldn't let them think I was actually dead. I was breathing, I could feel my chest moving up and down, so why couldn't they see that? I breathed as hard as I could out of my nose. Bad idea.

My lungs gasped for air and I was sent into a coughing fit, chest heaving and my eyes flew open. Marciana screamed.

"Philly, do something!"

"What do I do?"

"Something! She's dyin'! You gotta save her!"

"You're the one who trained to be a nurse!"

"Yeah, and that didn't work out, now did it? You're just as qualified as I am, now do something before she chokes on her own spit!"

Meanwhile, I sputtered and coughed to no end. Whenever I tried to breathe in, there was something blocking the way. Whatever it was, I wanted it out.

"Do we take her to the what's it called, the hospital?"

"She'll be dead before we get there, Google what we should do."

What on earth was Google? Deciding that finding out wasn't one of my top priorities, I stared up as Marciana as she pulled a white rectangle out of her pocket and began tapping it.

"It says 'hime-lick', it something like that. You know what that is?'

"Yeah, the Heimlich, and we can't do that. She just fell down the stairs, we can't risk paralyzing her."

"That's it, we need professional help. I'm callin' an ambulance." Huh? I guess it was something to transport me to help. Okay. Any help was better than these two. Marciana held the rectangle up to her ear.

"Is this the 911?"

"Well clearly, if that's what you dialed," Phil cut in rudely. Marciana ignored him.

"Yeah, um, my daughter fell down some stairs, you hear me, and now she's chokin' on something. We need an ambulance!"

There was a pause.

"My address? Honey, what's the address?"

"8183 Marine Drive, babe."

"Yeah, it's 8183 on Marine."

The person she was talking to said something, but all I could hear were a few crackles.

"You'll be here soon? Five minutes? Okay, y'all hurry down, now."

We didn't wait five minutes.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Girl from thousands of years into a dystopian future finds herself in present day and has to salvage the world before it runs itself into the ground. Is thrown into a dysfunctional family of the past and meets a possible love interest.

Or maybe we did, I don't really know. It's next to impossible to keep track of time when you're pretty much the human version of a fish lying on the deck of a boat, gills gasping for life.

Phil and Marciana weren't all that helpful, either. I knew Phil was trying to be useful by holding my hand and telling me "e'rything's gonna be okay, sugar", but I wished he'd just go calm down Marciana who was yakking into the rectangle to everyone she knew about my 'tragic accident'.

Eventually a big red and white vehicle slammed to a stop outside. Marciana, still crying hysterically to someone named Janis, rushed to let in several uniformed people rolling what looked like a bed in wheels.

The male in charge barked at his team,"Get her onto the stretcher, nice and easy, we can't risk causing permanent damage." The other three rushed over to me.

Then the first man turned to Marciana. "Ma'am, would you explain to me how this happened?"

"She, she w-was going d-down..."

The man asked again, this time pointing his question at Phil. "How did she fall?"

"I guess she was goin' down to breakfast, and lost 'er grip... I didn't see it happen, maybe y'all could perform an ontopsy or whatever it's called..." Phil was just about as unhelpful.

Meanwhile, three strangers were trying to lift me onto the wheeled bed thing. They weren't particularly gentle. 

"Watch her neck!"

"Careful, you'll drop her..."

"Guys, her back could use a little more support."

For medical professionals, their training seemed like it had been mediocre at best. I was unceremoniously dropped onto the bed, my head pounding with pain. 

The man looked at Phil and Marciana again. "We've only got room for one extra body in the ambulance, so one of you is staying here."

Marciana jumped forward. "I'll go..." She said it as if she was some kind of hero for volunteering.

The guy wasn't looking too thrilled about this, but he didn't have time to try and talk her out of it. "Sure thing ma'am, but I'm going to have to ask you to remain rational so that you don't put any unneeded stress on your daughter."

"Of course." She wiped her eyes, leaving black streaks down her face.

In a matter of minutes, I was being rolled out the front door and into the world. It was awfully cold here, but that was a welcome change from the constant heat waves of the planet I was used to.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Girl from thousands of years into a dystopian future finds herself in present day and has to salvage the world before it runs itself into the ground. Is thrown into a dysfunctional family of the past and meets a possible love interest.

A woman in a white uniform leaned over me. She had a sunny smile, but her eyes were lifeless steel.

"Hey there, we're at the hospital." I didn't trust my lungs to be able to reply.

"Still not talking to me, U-6 Daughter? What's the matter? Is the big, bad world of the past too much for you to handle? I knew we should've sent someone with more than a teaspoon of experience." What? I managed to give her what I hoped was a look of confusion.

She grabbed the neckline of my shirt. "Of course, that didn't mean I stayed there, helpless, waiting for you to screw up and come back. I went anyway. And it looks like I made the right choice." My lungs seized up again uncomfortably, but I tried not to cough by thinking about what she'd do to me if I hacked something out into her face.

"You didn't even last one day. So now I'm going to take care of you." Take care of me? I didn't want her anywhere within a 10 mile radius of me.

"And by take care of you, I mean put you to sleep, and make sure you don't wake up. Oops. 'It was just an accident', I'll say. They'll fire me, sure, but then I can take over your mission, and I'll be the hero." Her grey eyes bore into mine.

I had so many questions. How long had she been here, planning, waiting for me to arrive? How had she known I'd show up? She certainly hadn't been from my unit.

"'Anything you can do, I can do better!' Fitting, isn't it? I'm older, more intelligent, and the better strategist. When I do effortlessly what you aren't able to do, they'll all see how wrong they were about me. I'll see you soon, D-6." One side of her mouth slid up into a smirk. 

With a cold wink, she strode off, straightening the stiff white cap over her blonde hair. As soon as she was out of my line of vision, I was plunged into darkness again. 

My eyes blinked open once, twice, and the world gave way to a blinding light.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm done copy and pasting the same thing. Read the description.

An older looking man, older than anyone I'd ever seen before, was standing over me as a woman dressed the same as blonde lady strapped something over my face. I heard Marciana whaling, but she wasn't within my line of sight. 

"This is an oxygen mask, alright? It'll help you breathe so you won't pass out again. Hopefully." 

Maybe that's all it was; a hallucination. I'd never actually seen the blonde before, had I? Everything she said had been tricky to process, but there was nothing suggesting that she was lying. I closed my eyes, the shock would be better absorbed later when I didn't feel as dead. The mask forced oxygen into my lungs, over and over. The air was blissfully clean, a stark contrast from what the norm was in the future. 

I had only a fuzzy picture of the events that had connected this world into mine. A long time ago, perhaps not long after the time when Heather's family roamed the planet, something has gone wrong. Or maybe a ton of things had gone bad, each leading up to this one big catastrophe. Everybody had different ideas, of different problems, each solved with a different solution. And since nobody could agree on one set of circumstances, nothing got accomplished and time went on until the world devolved to the era when I was born. If only I could figure out which period I was stuck in. Had I even gone back far enough? Already this world seemed too far gone. Everything was just perfect enough that nobody took notice of the problems brewing under the surface.

People here believed that what they didn't know couldn't hurt them. I knew that it could, and if you didn't learn fast, it would. But we're there yet. People ignored problems instead of solving them, and led society to where it is now. When you read this, I'll have fixed things (I hope.), but remember that problems are like rabbits. If you don't get rid of them, they multiply. But unlike rabbits, they don't stop when they run out of fuel. They take fuel from somewhere else, usually you. Enough of my philosophical ramblings, I hadn't had tons of leisure time to read books when I grew up, but I would have hated when the writer took a moment to break the fourth wall. Back to my adventures as Heather in the hospital.


	9. Chapter 9

"She's fine to go home, her breathing seems to have regulated itself, just keep her in bed for couple of weeks. There's some trauma to her neck, and she'll have to wear a brace for the foreseeable future, only in bed and while in a moving vehicle, though. I also recommend these." The man shook a white bottle and pressed it into Marciana's palm. 

"Are these painkillers for her neck? How many-" The man cut her off.

"No ma'am. They're anti-anxiety medication. For you. They'll help you relax."

"I'm not anxious, I'm calm now aren't I?" Marciana's face contorted as she tried to keep her voice level. 

"Judging from the way you acted after Heather fell, these might do some good from time to time. They're just a little Valium, to settle your nerves. Use them when you feel shaky, and as directed on the bottle. I've already written you a prescription, so if you need more or just have a question, come down and talk to one of our nurses." 

Marciana nodded. The man left.

I'd been in hospital for three weeks. I was more than ready to go home, even if that meant being around Marciana around the clock. 

"Good God, I don't have anxiety problems, the man's a quack. I mean, he's worked here long enough, he should know that." She dropped the bottle of pills in her purse anyway. "Philly's bringin' the car down, since my license is on probation." 

I tried to nod, but my neck was too stiff. The 'quack' came back in, holding a black circle thing. He handed it to Marciana. "She'll put it around her neck whenever she gets in the car and before she goes to bed each night. It doesn't have to be with during the day, but she can if it's more comfortable that way." 

God, it was ugly. He showed me how it attached and unattached with straps called Velcro. Phil popped his head in.

"Time to go, family! Are y'all ready?" Marciana pushed past him and wandered into the hall. I pushed myself out of bed, and with a sharp twist of pain in my neck, hastily fastened my neck brace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it says the story is completed, but it's not and I can't be bothered to change it. You'll know when it ends.


End file.
